He may be as sharp as a tack still but he's been left long behind in his political idealism on many areas and is firmly stuck in the early 1980s in much of his thinking. Far too many inappropriate ideas for the 21st century.

Arguing with the forum trolls is like playing chess with a pigeon. No matter how good you are, the bird will **** on the board and strut around like it won anyway

A great man but unfortunately he has been relegated to the position of the dotty old uncle who you may love but consider to be bonkers for his belief in aliens. An example of how you can be very well informed, a thoroughly decent bloke but still wrong about almost everything.

He certainly stood by his principles in renouncing his hereditary peerage and driving the change in the law. Blessed with the finances to support himself as he opposed virtually everything, he was able to benefit from the confidence and eloquence drummed into him at his private school.

He certainly was able to represent his Labour left views more clearly and incisively than his less privileged like minded colleagues, and to this day is worth listening to, at least as a reminder of what not to do.

He certainly stood by his principles in renouncing his hereditary peerage and driving the change in the law. Blessed with the finances to support himself as he opposed virtually everything, he was able to benefit from the confidence and eloquence drummed into him at his private school.

He certainly was able to represent his Labour left views more clearly and incisively than his less privileged like minded colleagues, and to this day is worth listening to, at least as a reminder of what not to do.

Whereas every Tory MP has come from a council estate?

So what if he had a good start in life, IMO it makes him a better person for thinking that not everyone else has such luck.

Exactly what I am saying. the fact that he was able to start at the top rather than at the bottom gave him the opportunity to shine.. He was able also to extend this to son Hilary for quite a while, too, whilst his academically bright granddaughter was forced to rely on a selective grammar school education.

Of course, Wedgie is undoubtedly passionate about his political beliefs and is eloquent in his expression of them...more so in fact than his modern-day counterparts. We should not hold his background against him.

Yet another privately educated ex Oxbridge politician. Wheeled out by the likes of Owen Jones at every available opportunity like he's some sort of oracle.

he didn't choose to be privately educated

personally I prefer to judge people on their personal qualities rather than how rich or poor they are, their social class, which school they went to or whether they went to university(Oxbridge or otherwise)

I've admired Tony Benn since I was about 12. There are things he's done and said-his advocacy of Concorde for instance-especially with it being built in his own constituency that I havent gone along with, but on balance over the last half decade he gets my admiration and respect

Tony Benn was rich enough and eloquent enough to set himself up as the leader of the Cult of Tony. He seduced union leaders and their members in droves and got enough votes at the Labour Party Conference to ensure recurrent appointment as a government minister or shadow government minister. However, his 'socialist' principles didn't lead him to accept corporate responsibility and the leadership never trusted him. It's hard to recall one significant achievement that is directly attributable to his being in charge of a government ministry.

The only time that he was ever effective was as a voice of opposition to Thatcher, when Fot was completely useless as Labour leader. In fact Foot was arguably only elected as leader to placate the warring Benn and Healey factions.

In the volume 1980-1990 Neil Kinnock is vilified again and again as someone shallow, ambitious and a traitor to the left of the Party. Wouldn’t you allow that there is a good chance that history will come to judge him as the man who reformed the Party for its own good, something which had to be done to avert disaster?

I don’t know how many times you have to be defeated to prove you’re unelectable. To be candid, nobody believed a word that was said. Election policies were made on the hoof, but I’ve blamed Neil for this; I’ve only commented on his contribution. The people who accepted Neil were the National Executive, the Shadow Cabinet, the Parliamentary Party and what interested me about the recent conferences of the Party was that the delegates were cheering because they thought Neil was going to win, and the media people were cheering because they knew he was killing Socialism because it’s alive, and that he would not win.